Location
On the Quay side, the Camber, Old Portsmouth.
10TH APRIL 1991
JEFF ALAN VENTERS
MICHAEL JAMES BELL
MARK WARWICK FITZ
CHRISTOPHER CLIFFORD THOMAS
GUY RANSOM DAVIES
MATTHEW JAMES HODGE
REST IN PEACE
Further Information
The Wilhelmina J was a 50ft trawler, owned by Johnson's Sea Enterprises, which was lost off the Sussex Coast in the English Channel on April 10th 1991. There were 6 fishermen on board at the time. A major rescue operation was launched after the accident happened 20 miles south of Newhaven near the Greenwich Meridian Buoy.
The Wilhemina J went down after a collision with an 8,000 tonne Cypriot cargo vessel the Zulfiker at around 2 am in thick fog. A coast guard spokesman said the cargo vessel reported that she had hit the smaller ship when she found the trawler's serial number on her bow "some time after the collision." He said: "The cargo vessel conducted a search of the immediate area when she realised she had hit something." and added that an 8,000 tonne vessel would have had difficulty detecting a collision with a 50 ft. vessel. An RNLI spokesman said two empty liferafts and a broken alert beacon were found floating in the sea and it was feared the fished boat had sunk.
On the 2nd July 1991 the Wilhemina J was lifted and the following day 2 bodies were found and recovered. They were those of Chris Thomas and Jeff Venters (skipper).
See also the memorial to the men of the Wilhelmina J in Portsmouth Cathedral and The Bridge Tavern and also the individual memorial to Guy Ransom Davies.
